Week 8 - UPS installation finalized

Hey!  

Our time here in Kolandoto has come to an end, eight weeks has passed since we first arrived in Tanzania and oh have we experienced a bunch. Neither me nor Simon were sure what to expect when we first arrived in Dar es Salaam the 20th Mars but we are very happy with the outcome of our stay. We have meet a lot of amazing people, seen things we’d never thought we would see and perhaps the most important outcome; having to install a power back-up system for a hospital facing urgent difficulties. Since this post is the last post me and Simon will give we ought it to be time for a summary of our work.

We have installed 3 separated UPS:es which feeds the most critical loads at the hospital along with a total capacity of 3500 W solar power. The following pictures gets sum up the project.

Prior to installation in Eye theater

Eye theater after installation

Eye theater

Maternity ward prior to installation

Maternity ward after installation

Maternity ward

General theater prior to installation

General theater after installation

On top of general theater with the maternity ward in the background

Thank you so much for reading, hope you enjoyed!

- Martin & Simon

Week 7 - Loads of load testings

Hey!

Another week has passed here in Kolandoto, me and Simon has for the last couple of days spent a ridiculous amount of time testing the UPS:es. The systems has proven to be much more robust than we intended them to be, which is a good thing! For instance, on a sunny day the eye theater is close to self-sustained and almost the same thing goes for the UPS in the maternity ward. We are currently evaluating what the most efficient way would be to load the UPS:es even more. 

Though we are not leaving yet for another 9 days we had a final meeting with the staff of the hospital. We figured it would be a nice way to round off our stay here with a presentation of what we actually have been doing. As far as we reckon, the presentation was appreciated though we realized half way in that most people don't understand english. We got some help with the translation to Swahili and got to answer some questions, so we believe it worked out fine.

Staff of Kolandoto Hospital

 

Simon approves

 

The hospital kitchen where we buy our chapati bread

Thank you for reading, hope you enjoyed!

- Martin

Week 6 - Inverter delivered in advance

Hey!

The past week has been a good week. Not to much waiting in general and one of the two inverters which were suppose to be delivered on June 6 was instead delivered last Wednesday. This was truly good news since now we can assure that at least 2 out of the 3 UPS:ses works as intended before we departure on Maj 13.

So this week we have been following the electrician closely. Yeah, it sounds ridiculous but it has proven to be necessary. For example, even though the installation of the UPS in Eye ward were finished two weeks ago we found out the electrician had installed another piece of equipment there which we had not requested. The company wanted to install a voltage stabilizer prior to the inverter, even though the inverter already has that functionality itself.. Their intentions are good though and we are happy with the work they put in.

Anyhow, life in Kolandoto is appearing normal to us now. Ants establishing pathways across my bed, kids peeking through our windows at night and power outages on a daily basis is nothing out of the ordinary.

The following pictures gets to sum up this week!

Installing of the UPS in the maternity ward

Last sealing of the AC for maternity ward

 
Few out of many kids of Kolandoto

Hope you enjoyed reading!

Week 5 - Installation of cooling system

Mambo!

Five weeks and Kolandoto Hospital is soon to be a hospital with close to full resilience to power outages. The week has unfortunately not been that exciting since most of the "entertaining" installations were finished last week. This week we have been installing the air condition in the UPS-rooms and visited the bank... twice. We also managed to find a faulty installation in the Eye theater, which we later got corrected. The solar panels were directly connected to the battery whereas they are actually suppose to go through the inverter before charging the batteries. This way we get the full potential of the panels. This week we are hoping to be able to perform discharging tests on the batteries in eye theater to see if they perform as intended.

The following pictures gets to sum up this week.

 

 
The AC retailer

 

             

                                Not aesthetically appealing but fully functional                    AC installation in progress

 

The evening jogs in Kolandoto are truly something

 

Hope you enjoyed reading!

- Martin 

Week 4 - Solar panels and gratitude

Hey!

Im having a hard time believing we actually been in Kolandoto for four weeks now, which also means 50 % of our total stay has passed. Week four has been exciting, all solar panels are installed and almost all wiring and equipments are installed in the General- and Maternity theater. Unfortunately the inverters for the General- and Maternity theater are delayed and will first arrive to Kolandoto after me and Simon leaves (which we knew when we contracted the company). The option would be to have another brand of inverter instead, though this would result in a significant increased cost. And since we are on a tight budget, we choose to go ahead with the delayed delivery option.

We have also got the time this week to do some testing of the finalized system in the eye theater. The UPS is working as intended and has already been practically used two times. Feels incredible to deliver a product and see it in full motion the very same week. The doctors and personnel are very grateful. 

The following pictures gets to sum up this week.

Prepared structure for the solar panels ready for mounting

 

 Picture take from the top of the general theater with the maternity ward in the background

 

Without further ado, the solution for attachment

 

Kolandoto Hospital

Hope you enjoyed reading!

- Martin 

Week 3 - Eye theater finished

Hello!

Three weeks have passed and things are finally starting to happen here. The first UPS-system is soon to be fully installed in the eye theater which is very pleasing to observe. The UPS in the eye theater is the smallest of the three systems which will be installed in this project. Few companies in Tanzania have good references in installations similar to our request, hence seeing the contracted company performing above expectation is relieving.

The eye theater has the following critical loads (rated) connected to the UPS:

• Lighting tubes                     288 W
• Energy server bulbes         54 W
• Microscope machine         40 W
• Operation lights                 300 W
• Anesthesia machine          280 W 
• Total load:                           962 W

Installed equipments:

• 1x Opti SP2400 24VDC Hybrid Inverter
• 2x Dayliff 195W 24VDC Solar module
• 2x Champion NP200-12 L sealed battery 200Ah, 12VDC
• 1x Steca PRS 20A charge controller

The system is also installed with a switch which makes it possible to have all loads bypassing the inverter. We figured it is best to have the system installed that way in case the inverter breaks. Better to be safe than sorry!

 Eye theater

Three sockets are feed by the UPS and one socket is for air condition

                                      

                                                 Newly installed system                                          UPS-room prior to installation

 Eye theater seen from patient entrance side

 Solar panels connected to the Eye theater

Hope you enjoyed reading!

- Martin

Week 2 - Contract signed, rain and power outages

Jambo!

We have now been in Kolandoto for almost two weeks and even though I still not have gotten used to showering from bucket I must say I enjoy it here. Life is so much simpler. The perception of time here is a lot different from what we are used to, which in the beginning made us very frustrated. Here, time is seen as something which is coming and not as we see it, as something which is passing. The rain period has recently begun which is one of the reasons the power is cut off almost every day. The national grid company seems to turn of the power as soon as they are expecting bad weather. The N-1 criterion is far from fulfilled in eastern Tanzania.

We have the last week managed to get a number of things done, still not as much as we wished to but it still turned out to be a moderate week. The company, which was later contracted, has visited Kolandoto and we have presented thoroughly what we expect from them. We have also managed to get a hold on a logging thermometer for measuring the rooms that the inverters and batteries will be stored.

The coming week we will be at assistance for the electrician(s) to ease their work. We are on a tight schedule, so nothing can't go wrong (fingers crossed).

By this time next week I hope we got some more installation-related pictures to share with you, this week however the following pictures gets to sum up the week.

 We live in a shared house just 2 min walking distance from the hospital

The local shop, where we literally buy 95% of all our food

 The questioned packing of my jersey turned out to be a hit

 A whole day was spent at the bank this week

Hope you enjoyed!
- Martin